Hypocrisy in India’s Christmas politics as church visits clash with rising violence against Christians, exposing a gap between constitutional promises and ground reality.
By Qalam Times News Network
New Delhi | December 28, 2025
Hypocrisy :A festive visit to a church collides with a year marked by silence, fear, and rising attacks on Christians.
Hypocrisy was on full display this Christmas in India. The day that symbolizes peace, compassion, and human dignity unfolded under the shadow of violence, religious hostility, and official indifference. As cameras flashed and smiles were carefully framed during the Prime Minister’s visit to a church, reports from across the country told a far darker story—churches vandalized, prayers disrupted, and Christian communities left exposed to intimidation and fear.
From protests by 18 Christian organizations in Delhi on November 29 to incidents at Raipur’s Magneto Mall, the contrast could not have been sharper. India’s Constitution promises equality before law under Article 14, forbids religious discrimination under Article 15, and guarantees minorities the right to preserve their culture and institutions under Article 29. On paper, these safeguards are reinforced by the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992. On the ground, however, these assurances appear fragile, even hollow.
What this hypocrisy reveals is not just a gap between law and reality, but a widening moral fault line. Data compiled by the United Christian Forum shows a staggering rise in violence against Christians during Narendra Modi’s tenure—cases jumping from 139 in 2014 to 834 in 2024, an increase of nearly 500 percent. The pattern is especially visible in northern and central India, regions largely governed by the ruling party. Raipur, Bareilly, Jabalpur, and Nalbari have become names associated not only with incidents, but with a deeper erosion of trust.
The acts themselves follow a grimly familiar script. Christmas decorations damaged in Raipur. Protesters storming St. Mary’s School in Assam’s Nalbari, chanting slogans and burning posters. In Bareilly, religious chants blared outside a church; in Jabalpur, a BJP office-bearer was accused of assaulting a visually impaired woman. In Raipur, 49 people were booked, yet arrests were scarce. These were not spontaneous outbursts. They reflected an organized social drift, where religious difference is recast as hostility and political silence offers protection.
The ideological roots of this hostility are no secret. Groups that brand Christians as “foreign” threats often draw inspiration from M.S. Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts, which frames minorities as internal dangers. This thinking sits uneasily—if at all—beside a Constitution that enshrines freedom of religion and laws like Section 295A of the IPC, meant to punish acts that outrage religious feelings. When the state chooses not to act, the failure is not legal alone; it is ethical.
The contradiction is stark. On one side, carefully staged images of solidarity with the Christian community. On the other, the unchecked activities of groups like Bajrang Dal and VHP. This double standard is not only damaging at home; it chips away at India’s global credibility. When police film acts of intimidation instead of preventing them, the source of confidence among aggressors becomes painfully clear.
The Prime Minister now faces a defining question. Does he stand with the inclusive vision associated with figures like Vivekananda, who spoke of reverence and compassion across faiths? Or does he tacitly accept a worldview that leaves minorities with little more than fear and humiliation? The “New India” taking shape under such contradictions looks less like a promise and more like a warning—where constitutional guarantees risk being reduced to ink on paper.
Opposition leaders have called it politics of pretence: Christmas prayers in one hand, silence in the other. If the government truly stands with India’s Christian community, symbolism will not be enough. Only firm enforcement of the law and visible justice can dispel the charge of hypocrisy.
